The Eastern Alberta Transmission Line Project is a massive utility project spanning 488km from Gibson Alberta, to Brooks Alberta. The construction involves the installation of Concrete Pile foundations, Driven Steel Foundations and Augered grillages as well as the installation and stringing of some 1490 steel lattice transmission towers.

For this project, Sharps provided drilling and installation services for Drilled pier construction, as well as machinery, engineering and manpower support for the augered grillages.

Sharps designed and develop an efficient method of suspending an grillage into an open shaft and then back-filling with 20% concrete fill. This would then cure, and could be back-filled with insitu fill, allowing for enough weight to prevent structure uplift, while also providing a concrete base for the tower foundation.

For drilled pier construction, Sharps deployed six drill
ing rigs ranging in size from a Watson 2100 to a Soilmec SR90 as well as multiple cranes, loaders, bobcats and multiple heavy trucks to move equipment around. The monumental task of shuffling rigs and cranes from one side of the project to the other was tackled by a team of dedicated heavy truck haulers that could be deployed across the project within 2-3 hours from central locations.

The project also had to tackle difficult environmental conditions such as high winds (exceeding 100km/hr) as well as temperatures in excess of -40°C and +34°C. In total, close to 1000 caissons and 1280 augered grillages were installed on the EATL project totaling close to 40,000m3 of concrete. All of this was completed in just 14 months.

Leduc Transmission, Leduc AB-28 caissons for monopole foundations with diameters ranging from 1934-2440mm in diameter up to depth of 19m. 40 steel casings were installed with the use of a vibratory hammer then cleaned out with conventional rotary drill rig the steel casings were used for direct embedment poles due to poor soils conditions.

Enmax to Sheppard Transmission-Calgary, Ab (ECPT) 15 caissons for new transmission line diameters ranging from 2440mm-3050mm and depths from 12m to 19m large diameter casings were installed and extracted with the use of a vibratory hammer on the 3050mm shafts due to poor soil conditions.

EATL East DC Link- Brooks, Ab 19 caissons ranging in diameters of 2440mm to 2743mm with depth form 10-18m following a strict outage schedule this project was completed on time and zero incident.

Northstar recently completed installation of helical foundations to support this 500 kV HVDC transmission line. Scope of work included 2,800 helical anchor / piles.  We also conducted a joint venture with Crux Subsurface to install 30 micropile tower foundations.

Over 20 personnel, 6 helical pile units, and 2 micropile units were utilized in the delivery of this project. Micropiling was utilized in areas of rock and bony tills.

In delivering this major SAGD/CSS project located near Cold Lake, AB, Northstar installed over 14,000 driven piles with pre-drilling. The overall scope of work called for 16 separate pads, and several kilometers of above-ground pipelines, plus the expansion of the Central Facility.  This work was released over several years and included multiple phases. At times Northstar faced substantial schedule changes and accommodated the accelerated timing by increasing the number of units & crew working. At times Northstar had 4 piling units & 12 crew members working together on individual pads. Additional services rendered include but are not limited to:

• – Material hauling & logistics;
• – Engineering + Survey services & As-builts;
• – Pile installations;
• – Splicing & welding;
• – QA/QC; and
• – Site safety.

In delivering this 500kV transmission line foundation project in central AB, Northstar installed 18,000 piles and 3,400 cap assemblies (760 structures). The original scope of work called for only 11,000 piles, however, environmental concerns associated with caissons and grillages induced an increase in driven and helical piles. Even with the substantial increase, Northstar was able to complete the work within the original schedule by adding additional resources. This program spanned 455 km with varying ground conditions and challenging environment obstacles such as: archeological sites, sensitive soil conditions, wetlands, crop protection, and native pasture conservation. Over 150 personnel and 9 Junttan Piling Units, were utilized in completing this project. Additional services rendered include but are not limited to:

• – Material hauling & logistics;
• – Engineering + Survey services & As-builts;
• – Pile installations;
• – Cap cutting, setting & welding;
• – QA/QC; and
• – Site safety.

As of Dec. of 2014, the project is   approximately 100% complete.

With the overall integration of Northstar into Quanta Services, and subsequently working with our sister company Valard, the successful completion of the EATL Project will be remembered as one of the pinnacle T&D Projects in Alberta.

In delivering this major Substation foundation project, Northstar installed 2,268 piles. Our crew of 11 personnel and 3 Junttan Piling Units, were utilized in completing this project. Additional services rendered include but are not limited to:

• – Material hauling & logistics;
• – Survey services & As-builts;
• – Pile installations;
• – Pile cutting, concrete, rebar, splicing;
• – QA/QC; and
• – Site safety.

As of Dec. of 2014, the project is   approximately 100% complete.